I’ll give you an example. In the Old Testament a word that has been translated God because at times it was talking about God and describing an attribute of God is misinterpreted. That word is Elohim. In Greek the word is used to describe an attribute of God but is not always used to refer to God. Its meaning is “judge”. The judges of the Israelites where called Elohim. Error in translation leads some to think men were being called gods. Take that one error and follow it through and it causes many problems.
Perhaps Christians should be forbidden to read Greek, then...What language was the Torah written in? Because “elohim” was used in Genesis, as I recall.
It seems your point about Elohim is under discussion here:
What these different perspective clearly show is that “judges” was not posited as a valid translation prior to the Rabbinic Period.I was not referring anyone to an argument FOR purgatory but to a discussion of the idea. I don't think Sayers or Dante was trying to persuade anybody of the idea. They are explaining it.
Next we’ll take a look a more up-to-date and respected Hebrew lexicon, the Hebrew Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, by Koehler and Baumgartner. It should be no surprise that the entry on elohim explains the translation can only be “gods,” or “God.” “Judges” is mentioned as a rare Midrashic translation that is not accurate. Older dictionaries and lexicons are generally based on the early twentieth century Christian apologetic readings of Ps 82 that I discussed above.